Re: Closing Aged Accounts.. Yes It Is Ok

I have to disagree with what you are saying. I have experienced this first hand. Several years ago I paid off all of my dept and decided I would close an account that I had not been using. This account happened to be an account that I had opened back in the early 80's. Immediately after doing this I was advised (within a month) by my car insurance company that my new renewal rate had increased by a couple hundred dollars because of a significant drop in my credit score. I reached out to experian at the time and they advised me that this was because I closed the account that showed my longest credit history. My advise is DON'T DO IT! It has taken me a long time to try to repair this.

Re: Closing Aged Accounts.. Yes It Is Ok

So, taking what's been said in this thread, it appears that it pays to reopen at least some accounts that are nearing the 10-years-since-closing mark, since typically they will add to the average length of credit history. Or are reopened accounts handled differently by FICO scoring?

Re: Closing Aged Accounts.. Yes It Is Ok

So, taking what's been said in this thread, it appears that it pays to reopen at least some accounts that are nearing the 10-years-since-closing mark, since typically they will add to the average length of credit history. Or are reopened accounts handled differently by FICO scoring?

Reopened accounts are treated as if they never closed. Now good luck reopening a 10 year old since-closed account. It would have to be the exact same account with the same account number that you had before. Creditors will usually tell you you'd have to reapply and that action would mean opening a new account, and not reopening the old.

Re: Closing Aged Accounts.. Yes It Is Ok

So, taking what's been said in this thread, it appears that it pays to reopen at least some accounts that are nearing the 10-years-since-closing mark, since typically they will add to the average length of credit history. Or are reopened accounts handled differently by FICO scoring?

Reopened accounts are treated as if they never closed. Now good luck reopening a 10 year old since-closed account. It would have to be the exact same account with the same account number that you had before. Creditors will usually tell you you'd have to reapply and that action would mean opening a new account, and not reopening the old.

+1

I have never, ever heard of a lender willing to do this.

The closest you can get is the backdating trick with AmEx, with a new card picking up the opening year of the oldest.

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